HALO 2 GREAT JOURNEY
by Hamid lawnmower
Summary: halo 2 in detail following the campaign


HAMID HAMANDI

HALO 2

**THE GREAT JOURNEY**

EPILOUGE

_**09:21, Halo debris field near Threshold, 20OCT2553, **__**Covenant Holy City, High**_ _**Charity Ninth Age of Reclemation.**_

A covenant capital ship glided forward leisurely. Light ray's reflected off the huge gas giant Threshold and onto the shimmering exterior of the large vessel. Gigantic curves of separated super-structure orbited around the planet, fires blazing and spreading through their gaps of engraved symbols that encased the charred remains of installation-04.

Also circling around Threshold was what seemed to be half a burned moon, High Charity, the covenant capital city. Its triangular shape and large dome like pinnacle arced down into the pointy rough edges of the holy structure.

In the southern-most section, a frenzied amount of activity was taking place in the inner chamber of councils. "There was only one ship", Thel' Vadamee had said this, the center of covenant attention, wearing the golden armor of a Zealot. He had commanded _Adjacent Justice_ a covenant flagship that had been captured by the humans, also he was blamed responsible the destruction of Halo.

The chamber was silent with only the chatter of whispers from the council members that echoed across the long, wide, stretching oval hall lined with two stands on both sides. Each stand had three rows that ascended upwards with entrance doors located on the first and third walks.

"One... are you sure? The prophet of regret asked curiously in a low tone. "Yes. They called it..." Thel' paused for a moment to think and then continued," The pillar of Autumn." The Prophet of Mercy, another associate of the high council hovered forward using his royal throne. He was unable to attend the event; he was busy supervising a covenant capital ship so instead he used a hologram to represent himself.

The hologram's electronic outline shook as it maneuvered to the front. "Why was it not destroyed with the rest of their fleet?" Mercy gestured his arms around unsteadily as he inquired. "It fled as we set fire to their planet. But I followed it with all the ships in my command." Thel' replied confidently, half expecting a positive response.

"When you first saw Halo, were you blinded by its majesty?" Regret asked, the commander interested in the question sprung his head up quizzically and then said, "Blinded?"

"Paralyzed? Dumbstruck?" Regret slung, then Thel' Vadamee shot back , "NO!" Regret, to the left of the Prophet of Truth the unquestioned leader of the covenant, mimicked Mercy and pushed forward then angrily retorted, "Yet the humans were able to evade your ships, land on the sacred ring and desecrate it with their filthy footsteps!"

"Noble hierarchs, surely you understand that once the parasite attacked –" The elite's voice was drowned by the increasing angry roars from the gallery. Tarturas the high-chieftain of the brutes watched in amusement. The hall echoed with shouts until Mercy silenced the gallery." THERE WILL BE ORDER IN THIS COUNCIL!" He bellowed.

Finally Truth spoke:" You were right to focus your intention on the flood. But this Demon… this 'Master Chief…" The elite's four-jawed face turned to his feet he then returning to subject he looked up, gaped into Truths eyes then expressed his purpose, "By the time I learnt about the demons intent, there was nothing I could do"

The other members of the council started to deny his '_innocence, _soonindignant clamoring boomed across the vast hallway. Regret now slightly moving forward shadowed Truths right cheek with his triangular palm and whispered into his ears "Noble Prophet of Truth, this has gone on long enough! You must make an example of this bungler! The council demands it!

Truth raised his hand, signing for mercy to back away and then looked back to the veteran. "You are one of our most treasured instruments, long have you led your fleet with honor and distinction. But your inability to safeguard Halo was a colossal failure!"

One of the council officers sitting on the right stand stood up and then called out "Nay, it was hearsay!" the rest of the hall erupted in enraged uproar. The elite looked up and around, his former comrades that had laid down their lives for him were now swearing at him in the name of the gods. He was flooded but not yet defeated "I will continue my campaign against the humans!"

Truths face turned from a frown to a grimace "NO! You will not! Soon the Great Journey shall begin, and when it does the weight of your heresy will stay your feet… and you will be left behind."

**SECTION I **CHAPTER 1

_**09:45, Milky Way system, same day, Earth defense platform, Cairo**_

Earth was unharmed, for now. 10 dozen UNSC Marathon-class cruisers orbited around, along with multiple Magnetic Accelerated Cannons platforms, 'Big MAC's' is what the Marines called them.__

Inside the armory of Cairo, SPARTAN-117 stood in circled inhibitors that lowered down just below his waist. Corporal James Guns, nicknamed "Master Guns" stood four feet away from John with a trolley in front of him. Scattered on it were various devices. "The planting was about to fail. There's viscosity throughout the gel layer. Optics? Totally fried, and let's not even talk about the power supply."

James played around with the equipment then picked up a clad-generator from the metal bulk. He then looked up into Master Chief's face and posed a metaphorical question, "You know how much this stuff costs Chief?" John-117 picked up his helmet and locked it with the rest of his armor with a _pshhhhhst _sound, "Tell _that_ to the Covenant."

"Well I guess it was all obsolete anyway. Your new suit's a Mark VI, just came up from Sondheim this morning. Try and take it easy until you get used to the upgrades" The marine ran a brief aiming test, "Everything checks out. Standby I'm gonna offline the inhibitors." The _pshhhhht _sound repeated itself with a loud mechanical crack following it. The yellow circle pulled up into the ceiling, releasing the Master Chief and his new Mark VI for the first time.

James pushed in some controls and then said, "Move around a little. Get a feel for it. When you're ready meet me by the zapper." The Chief didn't hesitate; he marched about and around the room. John strode forward to a large window. The view was beautiful, stars filled the unwieldy galaxy, and then Earth's moon came into view. Inside the Master Chief frowned as he remembered his fellow comrades that sacrificed their lives at the god-forsaken Halo.

Gun rattle boomed through his head, he could hear the screams, the blood, the bullets and the violence. But those days were long gone. The Master Chief walked across the room into a red square, on each side of his body there were two yellow bars that hug from a yellow circle attached to a 7 shaped platform.

"Pay attention 'cause I'm only going over this once. This station will test you recharging energy shields. Here I'll show you. Your new amour's shields are extremely resilient. Very effective…" Corporal James slapped some buttons on a control. The two Bars started to circle around the Spartan, light orange beams covered his body as the circled around faster. The marine continued, "… Much better than the covenant tech we used on the Mark Five."

The bars were spinning at full speed when they charged up and blasted away 117's shields with a loud _**PIZZAW**_! The chief actually shuddered and almost lost his balance. Red flares flashed into his HUD, his armors beeping indicated his shield was down. In no time the familiar humming sound tuned in his ears, he knew right then his shields were recharging.

"Bingo! As you can see they recharge a lot faster. If your shields go down, find some cover. Wait for the meter to read fully charged." The Master Chief so no point in James telling him that but he appreciated the marines concern. That moment the lift doors opened as an elevator slowed down carrying one passenger. "That or you can hide behind me." Sergeant Avery Johnson heard the marine's voice before he even reached the room. The Chief looked to his left and James spun around 100 degrees to his right.

"You done with my boy here Master Guns? I don't see any training wheels." The marine then rudely replied, "His armor's working fine Johnson, so just shut your chilly hole." The marine turned to face 117 again, "You're free to go son. Just remember, take things slow." The sarge turned back to the chief,"Don't worry I'll hold his hand"

The chief nodded to Guns then stepped onto the lift."So Johnson, when you gonna tell me how you made it back home in one piece?" James inquired, "Sorry Guns, its classified." With that the lift jutted upwards when James yelled back,"Huh, my ass! Well you can forget about those adjustments to your A2 scope…" Both men in the lift stared down as the elevator sped upwards and James voice faded away.

"Well he's in a particularly fine mood." The sergeant said sarcastically. The lift slowed down and squeaked as it stopped on the third floor. The two veterans stepped forward into a rectangular tram car, the slide door closed behind them as the car sled to the right. Both passengers stared out onto the Earths shimmering surface.

"Earth, Haven't seen it in years. When I shipped out for basic, the Orbital Defense Grid was all theory and politics. Now look, the Cairo is just one of the three-hundred Geo-sync platforms." Avery paused and then continued: "That MAC cannon could put a round clean through a covenant capital ship. Coordinated fire from the Athens and Malta… well nothing's getting past this battle cluster in one piece. Ships have been arriving all morning. Nobody's saying much but I bet that something big is about to happen "

The tram cart stopped at a windowed bay as a small crowd of senior officers in formal uniform applauded the two men, hovering around the platform was two automated cameras. "_You_ told me that there wouldn't be any cameras." The chief said. The sergeant kept facing forward his neck held high, smiling, "And _you_ told me you were gonna were something nice. Folks need heroes, give 'em hope, so smile will ya? While we still have something to smile about."

They strode forward to a door labeled 'Bridge' as it opened the applause grew louder and the whistles grew more piercing.

_**10:02, Same day, Back at **__**Covenant Holy City, High**_ _**Charity.**_

Loud roars flooded High Charity, the main amtiptheter of the city was lined with rows of covenant that stared at the door as two captian brutes emerged with Tarturus, following behind were two more brutes dragging Thel' Vadamee. There were three objects floating on each side of the 'cliff' structure. "He-ri-tic, He-ri-tic" they chanted as the group walked by.

The two captains stood on either side of the tip of the cliff while the other two fastened a pair energy bands on his wrists. Tarturus looked at Thel' Vadamee, "You've drawn quiet a crowd." the elite looked upwards and narrowed his eyes, "If they have come to hear me beg, then they will be disappointed." The brute cocked his head, "Are you sure?" he grunted darkly. Suddenly energy bolts arced down the wrist restraints that Thel' hung from.

It burned, burned bad. Most of the pain was luckily absorbed by his zealot armor but the majority of it blazed his skin."Let him be an example for all who break our covenant!" Tarturus barked loudly, with wild cheers following him. After an excruciating three minutes the brutes stripped off the smoking armor. Thel' Vadamee dangled from the restraints now powerless and naked. A twisted spiky object rose from below, Tarturus looked at it anxiously then pulled it up, reveling a spiked, circular, glowing hot surface at the other end

The elite screamed in agony as the brute pressed it into his chest more deeper and further. Tarturus watched happily as Thel' suffered the seering hot torture.

_**10:02, same day, Earth defense platform, Cairo**_

Both heroes walked into the large bay, inside were dozens of UNSC officers applauding. Together, their boots clanging onto the iron floor marched to Lord Hood; one of the UNSC's most experienced captains. Standing near was Miranda Keyes captain of the UNSC frigate In Amber Clad, and daughter of a most daring hero. The men saluted each other and the crowd quieted down

"We're lucky to have you back…" Lord Hood said gratefully as a UNSC officer whispered into his ear. He nodded approvingly and turned to a holo-pedestal."Go ahead Cortana." Suddenly a purple blur materialized out from the platform."Another whisper sir, near Io. We have probs enroute.

The chief gazed at his companion, she now was a lighter purple-white, taller and longer hair. He wondered if AI's were supposed to change their appearance in-time. Hood then looked back at the two men who in return faced him. "I apologize, but we're going to have to make this short." Lord Hood picked up a small medallion-ribbon off a case that another officer carried nearby.

"Sergeant Major, the Colonial Cross is awarded for acts of singular daring and devotion, for a soldier of the United Nations Space Corps." The aging captain clipped on the medal onto Johnsons uniform and nodded."Commander Miranda Keyes. Your father's actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service. His bravery in the face of impossible odds reflects great credit upon himself and the UNSC. The Navy has lost of its best-"

An alert sounded on the Cairo, officers scrambled over the consoles and controls. "Slipspace ruptures, directly off our battle cluster." Cortana warned."Show me." Ordered Hood."Fifteen covenant capital ships holding position just outside the kill zone." At that instance Admiral Harper shot into the entire Cairo comms system:"This is fleet Admiral Harper, we are engaging the enemy."

Hood looked up at the a huge screen hanging from the ceiling," Negative Admiral. Form a defensive perimeter around the cluster! Commander Keyes, get your ship and link up with their fleet."

"Yes sir!" The commander rushed out of the room, "You have the MAC gun Cortana, As soon as they come in range, open up." Hood ordered, "Gladly" Cortana said as her semi-transparent image fluttered away.

The captain looked back up at the screen analyzing the enemy fleet, "Something's not right… the fleet that destroyed Reach was fifty times this size." One of the officers sped down a stairway and then shouted loudly with a shaky voice, "Sir! Additional contacts! Boarding craft… and lots of them."

"They're going to try to take our MAC gun's offline, Master Chief, defend this station!" "Yes sir." The Spartan turned to Sergeant Johnson," I need a weapon." "Right this way." Said Johnson, Both men walked out of the bay.

CHAPTER 2

_**10:31, Milky Way system, 20OCT2553, Earth defense platform, Cairo**_

'All hands report to battle stations. This is not a drill; I repeat this is not a drill!' The intercom kept repeating this message, the Chief, though, was the only passenger aboard the Cairo that ignored it. He followed the sergeant and a handful of marines down a pair of stairs, into a corridor and through a hatch that lead to a medium-sized windowed room decorated with artificial palm trees and consoles. On the way picking up a BR55 semi-automatic Battle rifle and a M7 SMG.

The room had a risen platform where the marines set up defensive positions all around it. Johnson, however, mounted a mobile hand-held machine gun turret in front of a staircase that led down to the main level of the room. On the far end of the room was a door high above it was a balcony that connected a corridor with the bay. Through the windows you could see earth, lots of UNSC and covenant ships along with the Malta and Athens.

The chief stood next to Johnson, shouldered his rifle, switched off the safety and aimed at the door that now had yellow sparks flying from it: the covenant were already on board and were trying to 'burn' through the door. "This is sergeant Johnson of Cairo, how's it going Malta?" he radioed in, the Malta replied "Stand-by… they're latched! Check your targets and watch your crossfire. They're in standard formation: little bastards up front, big ones in back. Good luck Cairo."

The sergeant along with everyone in the room didn't know what was at the other side of that door, "Field of fire on that bulkhead. As soon as that door opens, let them have it!" he ordered. The marines scrambled around some more. The Chief was ready but anxious.

In an instance the door exploded, sending fiery debris flying everywhere. Covenant Grunts and Elites poured out of the door way as each one was brought down in a hail of fire. They came in swarms; every dead alien was replaced by two others. The Master Chief covered, reloaded and emptied another clip of bullets from his battle rifle into three elites and a grunt.

After a while the battle died down and just as the company was reloading two Elite commandos jumped down from the balcony, each wielding 2 plasma rifles. Three marines were downed in a shower of plasma bolts, the Spartan was used to seeing allies torn apart, so was Sarge. Avery opened up the turret, scraping the room with armor piercing bullets. The Chief now moved in for the kill, he clubbed down one elite to death and drained 6 rounds into the other elites head.

Johnsons Company: 12 kills, Covenant: 3. The dead marines were hauled up onto the platform, Johnson headed back from where he came from and the marines and Spartan advanced without him. They sped through a corridor and entered Hangar Bay 03 only to be welcomed by a flood of plasma bolts that came from a risen platform.

The Chief's shield was down, and two additional marines killed. As the Chief took cover behind an ammo crate he looked around: bloodstained walls, ripped up corpses, burning tiles. As his shield recharged he reloaded his weapon and checked his remaining ammo. He spotted three fragmentation grenades about three meters away from his position. The Spartan jumped out from his cover, rolled three meters to his right only being followed by plasma bolts and jumped back up on his feet then ran the remaining length as he snatched the grenades from the ground and spun left behind a energy shield.

He was now breathless, panting heavily as he triggered a grenade and tossed it twelve feet into the air, it landed right next to one of the turrets; the grunt screamed his last as the explosive went out with a loud and satisfactory _**BOOM**_! The Chief then tossed another grenade, and another turret exploded. He spotted boarding craft that had burned the glass from one of the large windows and replaced it with a long circular tube.

The humans inside the hangar advanced forward, aiming at the tube as a team of three elites and five grunts spat out of it. The marines fired in union, three of the grunts went down before they even reached the ground. The rest of the squad fired, meleed and grenaded the humans to oblivion. The Spartan tossed his remaining grenade, killing a majority of the enemy and wounding the rest.

Then John slung his rifle and wielded his SMG, he hosed bullets at the enemy, puncturing their skin and denting their armor. The squad fell instantly and the Chief reloaded. He picked up a plasma rifle, now dual-wielding two automatic fire weapons he half-ran and half-walked his way to the door sitting at the end of the room, to the right of a parked pelican.

The hatch exploded just like the previous door. More covenant attacked but the combined power of the two counterpart weapons made sure that all hostiles in the vicinity ceased to exist. The Spartan moved on and came across a locked door, then he turned back the way we he came from and found a staircase. He climbed the set of stairs, jogged through two hatch doors and sped his way out of a corridor into a windowed control room.

Its windows were completely destroyed except for one, there was a courtyard below, littered with outnumbered marines fighting a platoon of covenant. The master Chief, seeing that the only way out was through the courtyard, jumped out the window, found some cover, and fought alongside the straggler marines.

"Sir! Thank god you're here, we've been fighting these bastards for over half-an-hour!" the Chief interrupted the soldier, "Calm down" he said."They just come out through that door at the other side, swarm after swarm. I've lost eleven men!"The marine gestured to two risen platforms, they were accessible only by two accsesway's each.

These platforms, however where heavily defended. The Spartan scavenged six grenades from the fallen marines, careful not to lose cover. He ditched the plasma rifle and took carful aim at the first platform then tossed two fragmentation grenades that both struck home. Two loud thumps shook the deck of the courtyard. Platform 1 was secure.

Now he shouldered the battle rifle and fired six sustained burst of semi-automatic fire. One elite and two grunts on platform 2 collapsed, much more replaced them. The Chief couldn't aim a grenade at that range so instead he made a run for platform 1, firing his SMG wildly at the occupants of the second platform.

He now ruled the first platform. John 117 jumped down prone, covered from enemy fire by the rails. This time he had a better shot, tossing three grenades, jumping over the rails and advancing while firing his weapon. Three large booms deafened the Chief and made his mind numb from all the shooting.

Purple, blue and green blood filled the walls, rails and metal floors of platform 2. The Spartan rechecked the area for any hostiles on his motion detector and then moved on completely ignoring the damage he caused.

After a series of twists and turns, ups and downs 117 finally reached Hangar Bay 04 along with four marines fighting inside. He equipped his SMG, his personal choice for close quarters and hosed down three lone elites. The Malta station then radioed in,"Find the borders' point of entry Chief. Cut them off at the source." The Chief did what they said; he stood guard at the boarding craft's entry tube. He shot, clubbed and feed with grenades each and every enemy that dared float out of the boarding craft, making sure nothing was left. The marines and Spartan watched through the Hangar windows as the boarding craft retreated out into the battle cluster only to be obliterated by a MAC shell. Finally a moment of silence, the chief reloaded, swallowed down a snack and shook himself out. Cortana now had a chance to signal in with the other defense platforms.

"Malta, what's you status? Over." The Malta replied quickly as if expecting the message:" I don't believe it! They're retreating! We Won!" The chief had a bad feeling at the pit of his stomach as he watched the covenant ships disengaged from the MAC station; it seemed too good to be true. Then, out of the blue, the Malta's center imploded in a fiery yellow-orange blaze. Debris and pieces of MAC cannon floated through the grave of the Malta.

One of the marines watching said nervously, "This is bad…real bad." Another marine tuned in as the men inside watched the covenant also disengage from the Athens, "Uh oh, I think they're leaving the Athens. Then the Athens imploded the same way the Malta did.

Lord Hood back in the bridge was somewhat stunned, no, not somewhat, he was petrified! "Cortana!" He barked,"Assesment" Cortana replied approvingly:"That explosion came from inside the Athens as well as the Malta. The covenant must have brought something with them. A bomb."

The Master Chief was listening carefully, as was the rest of Cairo. He knew what his next objective would be before hood even ordered it, "Well they sure as hell brought one here. Chief, find it."

The Spartan immediately got to work; he knew there was no time and that the fate of the Cairo lied in his hands. John analyzed the room, no way out except for a ground-level hatch that led to an underground ammunition storage room. He passed through it, and as another hatch opened a lone grunt appeared. It screamed and ran away only to be pumbled down with a spray of punches: The Chief saw no point in wasting ammo on a lone grunt.

On the other side of the lengthy space there were two SMG's, John looked eagerly at them. He then was equipped with the weapons: a Spartans best friend. Moving on he walked through another door, a medium-sized room with MAC rounds stored in it. There was a staircase, but before he could reach it two, five, then ten plasma bolts illuminated out of thin air. His motion detector read two blobs of red, the Chief tracked them and fired his SMG's in unison, and both of the elites fell instantly, face down onto the hard cold floor. The Spartans shields were heavily damaged, they started to recharge but the Master Chief grew angry at himself. He should have seen that coming.

Moving on he crossed up the stairs then stopped suddenly as heard plasma fire above him. "Get the hell out of my armory split-lil-ahhh god!" James Guns fell instantly down the stairs and onto the Chiefs feet, his chest burning from plasma fire. John looked down at his face; he seemed pretty calm for a guy that was struck down in a moment. The Spartan dropped one SMG, slung the other to his thigh and equipped his BR55 battle rifle. Master Chief swung it over the surface of the ground above, protecting his entire body (except for his hands) and fired according to his motion detector. He heard two loud shrieks followed by two clangs.

He rose carefully, two elites lay on the floor, one bleeding heavily but still conscious and the other stone cold dead. 117 kicked angrily at the still alive elite, crushing his skull with his iron boots. 'Damn!' he thought,' I could of saved Gun's right? Yes if only I was faster.' He blamed himself; James didn't have to go like that.

He reloaded, reequipped and recharged before moving through an open door that led to another courtyard. Plasma turrets were stashed everywhere, all commandeered by high ranking grunts.


End file.
